One of the many symptoms of aging is that wounds and injuries take longer to heal. There are a number of reasons for this, and most people just accept is as a fact.

Blood Platelets

However, a medical breakthrough in the healing process may offer hope to the elderly that surgery won’t put them out of action for any longer than necessary or leave them open to infections.

A gel made from patients’ own blood cells is said to dramatically speed up the healing process after surgery. It’s claimed that the “DIY gel” could lower the risk of life-threatening hospital infections by dramatically shortening the recovery period.

The gel was tested on a small group of patients with startling results. Those who were treated with the gel had almost completely healed just two weeks after surgery in 80 percent of the cases. Only 50 percent of identical wounds treated with antibiotics had healed.

It’s known that deep surgical wounds are one of the main routes into the body for drug-resistant bacteria like MRSA, which usually lives harmlessly on the skin until the immune system weakens through illness or gets access to an open wound after an operation.

Researchers at the University of Cincinnati tested the gel on a group of volunteers who had each been given two puncture wounds, one on each thigh. One wound was given two applications of the gel, the other a standard antibiotic ointment. After two weeks the rate of healing was much faster in those wounds treated with the gel.